Rotherham MBC: Our Landlord Accreditation Journey
Wednesday 13th of October 2021
Rotherham Council manages approximately 20,000 council homes. Rotherham Council is determined to make Tenant Involvement central to the way that the Council’s housing services works. The Council have been a member of Tpas since 2015 and we have been accredited by Tpas twice in 2016 and 2019.
I would strongly recommend the Tpas Accreditation as it is a very useful self-improvement tool ensuring we meet the Tpas Engagement Standards which is critical especially in light of the new Social Housing White Paper requirements.
Tpas Accreditation for the 2nd time enabled the Council to achieve maximum scores across all themes. The Tpas Accreditation also enabled us to learn from good practice and learning elsewhere through Tpas to further improve our tenant engagement offer.
As a result of the recommendations from the Tpas Accreditations that have been undertaken with us, this has enabled the council to have a successful evolving journey over the last 6 years through developing a clear strategic approach towards tenant engagement through their award winning Tenant Engagement Framework which has been highlighted as good practice.
Our strategic direction through the Tenant Engagement Framework is to enable the Council to build upon our strong tenant engagement base by widening and expanding opportunities for tenants to make a positive difference to our services and future direction through a range of digital options which has been accelerated through the pandemic. The Council working with Rother Fed (local tenant federation) are empowering tenants and TARA’s through the provision of tools, resources, and support to enable them to make a difference to their neighbourhoods.
The Council has developed a flexible menu of options for involvement at a level and in a way which suits them such as Ward Housing Hubs, Housing Involvement Panel and Tenants Scrutiny Panel celebrating outcomes, impact and service improvements through tenant soundbites explaining how they and their neighbourhoods have benefited from getting involved.
The Tenant Engagement Framework will be further revised and updated to reflect the requirements of the Housing White Paper, new Tpas Engagement Standards and learning from the pandemic. This is good timing as the Council is now working towards 3rd accreditation which will give us exemplar status.